This story has it all — corporate deception…shady characters…government corruption…civil unrest. This isn’t the Rock’s new action movie. Nope. It is about a PR agency gone rogue.

In 2017, UK-based marketing communications consultancy Bell Pottinger experienced a stunning collapse after its work for an Indian billionaire with close ties to the South African government came to light. I encourage you to spend a few minutes with the New York Times’ riveting profile:

Even for marketers who have an unwavering commitment to professional standards, the tale of Bell Pottinger offers important lessons.

When it comes to clients (or corporate management) it is important to trust, but verify. If something seems out of place or feels wrong, we have a responsibility to question authority; to seek clarity. Clients can be replaced. A new job can be found. A soiled professional reputation is near impossible to shake.

Search and social connect marketers to an audience of millions. Exceptional content with little regard for or investment in distribution is a missed opportunity. Define, test and tweak organic search. Spend wisely on social media advertising. Sponsor and contribute to credible buyer communities.

I only met Jean once. It was in the early 1990s when I was a journalism student at the University of Maryland. I interviewed for an internship at her public relations consultancy – Young and Associates.

Jean Young, founder, Young & Associates

I never worked for Jean and, candidly, as I moved forward in my career gave little thought to how her firm had matured. It’s a good shop that does good work in the technology sector. However, we seldom competed for business.

Yet, I thought it important to recognize Jean because of her contribution to the Washington, DC regional business and PR/communications community.

Jean launched Young & Associates in 1982 at a time when it was incredibly challenging for a woman to achieve success as an entrepreneur. Her work and accomplishment helped pave the path for other women in the region to launch communications companies that serve technology clients.

What is the connection between my consultancy and Hasbro’s product strategy for Play-Doh?

At the conclusion of our kick-off meeting earlier this month the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) at a global, multi-billion dollar professional services company looked at me and said, “You know, Marc. I am impressed with how you have reinvented your business. This is an important project for us, so I am excited to be working with your firm.”

These were words of praise indeed. Especially when the source is someone you have known and respected professionally for more than a decade.

The reason for the CMO’s admiration is the transformation Strategic Communications Group (Strategic) has made during the past seven years from a boutique, media-centric public relations consultancy to a provider of a unique and high value marketing service commonly referred to as Web2Sales.

I’ll refrain from hyping the business case for and resulting ROI from Web2Sales. You can find that on our corporate Web site or on Modern Marketing Today, an online magazine for business-to-business marketers and sales professionals.

Rather, I want to touch on the importance of innovation and reinvention for business sustainability. I was reminded of that this week when reading through the May/June 2016 issue of Chief Executive Magazine, which included an article by William Holstein entitled Disrupt Yourself – Before Someone Else Does.

Of particular note was the case study about Play-Doh, a Hasbro brand and product line that dates to the mid 20th century. Holstein writes:

One of fastest-growing brands within Hasbro, ironically, is Play-Doh, which has existed for 60 years. ‘We looked at the present, selectively forgot the past and imagined the future,’ (Hasbro CEO) Brian Goldner says. ‘You look around the world and people are very focused on helping their children to concentrate on achieving development milestones.’

So Hasbro developed playsets and figurines to sell with the Play-Doh itself, allowing children to do things such as build a village or an imaginary scene. That enhances their creativity and story-telling capabilities, encouraging parents to buy more.

In short, the company reimagined how Play-Doh could be used. As a result, Play-Doh sales grew more than 30 percent last year and have doubled in size over the past three years.

Strategic’s story of reinvention is not without flaws and set-backs. Perhaps most significant has been the sales and marketing challenge that comes with introducing and educating an executive audience about a differentiated approach.

I suspect that if we had maintained a public relations focus our near-term revenue (and profits) would have been more stable. Yet, the future would be no where as bright, shiny and exciting as it is today – for the company and its employees.

We exist in what many communicators affectionately refer to as a sound bite society. Corporate messages are conveyed in simple, sharp and concise language, often enhanced with a splash of creativity, context and alliteration.

The relevance and impact of these bites continues to grow as consumers and business audiences alike demand to be fed information in 140 character chunks. If I can quickly and succinctly understand who you are and what you do, I’ll be sure to friend you, fan you, follow you and, of course, like you.

This week I was reminded of the impact of the all mighty sound bite at the Future of Marketing Summit in NYC. Upon review of my notes post-event, I was struck by the quotes I chose to highlight from the half dozen presentations I attended. I share them below.

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“The future of technology is soft and emotional.”

Billie Whitehouse, Wearable Experiments

“A hammer is a useful tool, unless you are doing heart surgery.”

Stephen Gold, IBM

“Content is king. Context is queen. And she wears the pants.”

Penry Price, LinkedIn

“The only people who like changes to brand design are brand designers.”

Debbie Millman, Sterling Brands

“The first ever advertorial was the Betty Crocker cookbook. It was useful, so you kept it on your shelf.”

Lindsay Nelson, Vox Media

“We need to avoid hobby-ism when it comes to social media and focus on what actually works.”

Roel deVries

Nissan

In NYC this week, speakers and panelists dazzled the audience of marketers with their use of sound bites.

This week I had the pleasure of visiting with a newly hired colleague at Strategic Communications Group (Strategic) who, like me, studied journalism at the University of Maryland, College Park. Go Terps!

Eventually, our conversation shifted to a shared lament about the spiraling and continued down cycle that plagues careers in news reporting. The rise of the enlightened buyer coupled with the shift in influence to online communities and social networks has led to a mass shedding of jobs in media rooms.

At Strategic, this sustained trend has birthed an exciting new service capability we refer to as Web2Sales. Yet, the dwindling community of quality journalists poses a myriad of adverse consequences for our society.

Are advertising, marketing services and public relations firms now on a similar death march?

This article published by Advertising Age makes a credible argument that…yes…indeed they are. Penned by management consultant Michael Farmer, the business model failure of these services companies will be attributed to the loss of agency of record status and the frothy profits it produced.